Rafa plans to end Blues stay with silver lining

Chelsea interim manager Rafael Benitez hopes to be employed by a leading club next season but first plans to satisfy his thirst for silverware at Stamford Bridge.

On Monday, the Blues beat Manchester United to advance to the FA Cup semi-finals and play Rubin Kazan in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final tonight in their third of six games in 16 days.

Benitez’s appointment in November until the end of the season was prompted by the Champions League winners’ group-stage elimination from the same tournament. The Spaniard, an unpopular appointment due to his prior association with Liverpool, declined to look too far beyond winning the next game, but felt compelled to comment on his own future.

Benitez, who revealed in February he will be leaving at the end of his spell in May, said: “If we can achieve trophies and finish in the top three, fantastic. Everybody will be happy. That is my aim at the moment.”

As for his own future, he added: “I like to win, to challenge for trophies. I would like to stay in a top side. A top side, why not in England?”

Rubin Kazan coach Kurban Berdyev was once a guest of Roman Abramovich at Stamford Bridge but will now seek to mastermind victory over the Russian billionaire’s beloved Chelsea.

Berdyev has been Rubin coach since 2001 and led the club to successive Russian titles in 2008 and 2009 and the Russian Cup in 2012.

His previous trip to Stamford Bridge was as a result of an invitation from Abramovich to a number of coaches, but it inspired Berdyev to want to return.

“I don’t know Abramovich personally,” he said. “When Abramovich invited me here, I was looking around the stadium thinking I wish I could play against this team here.”

Ashley Cole and Gary Cahill are absent. Cole is recovering from a hamstring injury while Cahill has a knee injury and both are likely to also miss next week’s return leg in Russia. Striker Demba Ba is ineligible.